Years ago I went to the Muzzy shoot in the Catskills of NY for the first time at the invite of a friend. I took wood arrows... If you've never heard of the Muzzy think of it as a trad only stump shoot, single elimination, with most of the targets set up in an avalanche shoot full of suitcase size stones. With enough oak trees and stone walls protecting the rest of the targets to give any trad shooter PTSD. By the end of the first day I had broken every arrow I had with me.
Anyway, the point of the story is I found out real quick that every single person who wasn't a first timer was shooting footed carbon arrows. The footings were simply approximately 1" pieces of the appropriate size aluminum shaft that was epoxied onto the carbon directly behind the insert. Some guys also footed the nock end with about 1/4 if the same aluminum shaft. Since then If I'm shooting carbon, it's going to be footed. The footing has 0 effect on arrow flight or performance IMO and it makes them almost indestructible. I've literally hit boulders square and had the arrow bounce backwards with no damage to the shaft.
Here's a (partial) chart of which aluminum's fit which carbons. Give it a try and I bet you'll love them.
Aluminum footing sizes for Carbon arrow shafts
www.tradgang.com
